Legislation sending $227 million in assistance to western North Carolina recovery from Hurricane Helene has been vetoed by two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Thirty-six days from exiting the governor’s mansion, the 67-year-old lawyer from Nash County called the bill “a sham” and cited the appointment authority removed from the governor’s office and authority of the attorney general blocked from advocating “for lower electric bills for consumers.”
For context, only the first 13 of 132 pages in the proposal is about Helene, a Category 4 hurricane when it landed in Florida on Sept. 26. In this ninth week of recovery in the North Carolina mountains, the staggering numbers include 103 deaths, $53 billion in estimated damage according to the governor, and 30 inches of rainfall that fateful weekend in places.
A $50 million transfer to the financially troubled Office of Recovery and Resiliency, where Chief Operating Officer Laura Hogshead on Thursday lost her job, is also blocked by the veto. That office has at least a $175 million budget hole, according to Cooper’s earlier proposal, and could be as high as $265 million according to Hogshead’s testimony before a state legislative panel.
The 29th veto of this two-year session with just a month to go – there were 35 before Cooper took office, ballot referendum having happened in 1995 and first veto used Nov. 3, 2002 – is expected to be challenged by overrides from the Senate and House of Representatives. Three-fifths majority in each would make Disaster Relief-3/Budget/Various Law Changes, also known as Senate Bill 382, the law.
Labeling each as an installment, lawmakers on Oct. 9 approved $273 million and on Oct. 25 Cooper signed for another $604 million, plus $40 million for disaster relief toward Tropical Storm Debby, what was known as Potential Tropical Cyclone 8, and a tornado that touched down in Nash County.
Should SB382 become law, total Helene relief from state lawmakers would be $1.1 billion ($1,104,000,000 to be exact); total disaster aid including other storms adds $40 million.
“This legislation was titled disaster relief,” Cooper said in a statement, “but instead violates the constitution by taking appointments away from the next governor for the Board of Elections, Utilities Commission and commander of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, letting political parties choose appellate judges and interfering with the attorney general’s ability to advocate for lower electric bills for consumers.”
Cooper said small business grants to disaster counties is bypassed in “a cruel blow by blocking the extension of better unemployment benefits for people who have lost jobs because of natural disasters.”
He said taking away two judges elected by voters and adding two appointed by the Legislature, removing some of the authority entrusted to the lieutenant governor and superintendent of public instruction “plays politics.”
If going to an override, Republicans hold exactly three-fifths majorities in each chamber – 30 in the Senate, 72 in the House. In the House, the vote was 63-46 with no Democrats approving and Republican Reps. Mike Clampitt of Swain County, Karl Gillespie of Macon County and Mark Pless of Haywood County voting nay. All three are from mountain counties.
In the Senate, the vote was 30-19 with no Republicans against and no Democrats approving.
At time of passage Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said of the State Board of Elections changes, “For years Republicans have tried to bring true bipartisanship to the state board by giving Republicans and Democrats equal representation, but Democrats have fought us every step of the way.”
The five-member state board is a 3-2 split with the party of the governor having the advantage. Republicans originally in this session pushed for an eight-member board. SB382 drops it back to five, no more than three from the same political party, all appointed by the state auditor, and terms of four years.
County boards also would be five members, two each appointed by the state board from the two political parties with highest number of registered affiliates. The state auditor would appoint the chairman. Terms are two years.
Among the election law changes are correcting registration forms. Instead of 5 p.m. the day before the county canvass, it will be at noon on the third business day after Election Day for provisional ballots to be cured.
